Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving always means lots of family time!
We started Thanksgiving day at Ryan's parents house.
The kids table

Praying before the meal

The "adults" table

Camryn had her first bite of pumpkin pie

She thought it was good - but liked the whipped cream the best ;)

After we finished the meal, we headed to Battle Creek for Thanksgiving at Mem's house
Mem had a surprise for the girls - new bunk beds!

Lots of cozy moments at Mem's....reading books

Decorating her tree

Cousin play time :-)

Nap times too - for Aunt Jen and cousin Abbey :) 

Speedo is getting older, but is still a sweet little kitty that the girls love to see when we visit Mem

We had a good meal together

And a tradition during holiday meals is to scratch off lottery tickets - there were three winners! We 'gave' them all to the kids, and then made a stop at Meijer to let them cash in their tickets and pick out something a little fun.

We headed from there to downtown Battle Creek to the "12 Days of Christmas" lights. It was cold, and a little drizzly, but the lights were still fun to see!

'8 maids a milking'

it was a good Thanksgiving!

First peeks into the Holiday Season

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... :-) ....and it started in November :)

We put up our first little Christmas tree :-)

We pulled out some Christmas shirts

I even pulled out my gym Buddy the Elf shirt :-) 

The girls and I got all bundled up - scarves and all - to go to the Holiday Open House downtown Holland

We saw Santa's reindeer

The girls got some free reindeer headbands

And we saw Santa himself!

The girls got cozy by the fireplace

And we have watched Polar Express at least 2 times so far :-)

We celebrated Ryan's birthday at the very end of November as well! His parents came with us for dinner, and then we had some cake afterward.

Ryan bought a special surprise for Taylor - a Lego North Pole set. They worked on it for a whole day!

Bring on the holidays! 

November Odds and Ends!

Lots of pics with little sweeties :-)

Pick up after school one day (November was warm enough that we were wearing short sleeves!)

Sometimes they sleep together at night (Camryn's sleeping position kinda cracked me up)

And sometimes they stay in their own beds...peeking in on Cam before I went to bed one night

They came with me to work and play at school, and had fun on the playground

We all saw Trolls together - it was such a cute movie with great music!

So warm - Camryn's outfit one day!

Out shopping later

Taylor seemed to grow right before our eyes - she is getting so tall!

We went to the dentist - good reports for both with no cavities

Towards the end of the month, I was a part of a Row Raiser at my gym to raise funds for Special Olympics. We put together a "Morning Crew" team, and had to row 26.2 miles as a group.

It was fun to hang with Katie and friends! :D

The girls hung out with Miss Emma during the event, and they got all dressed up for her. :)

Camryn had her school pictures - they turned out cute!

There was a "Super Moon"  in November, and we just had to go for a night time walk!

One afternoon after school, Taylor was not happy with Ryan and me, and she wrote this sticky note in her room. Little stinker. ;)

And we had great news in November! Cam had her follow-up appointment at the ENT, and she officially graduated! Her ears look good! Hoping for a healthy winter season for her ears now that we are tube-free for the first time in 3 years!